severus snapes story
by leprekan187
Summary: i suck at theses. its a snape and lily story.
1. Chapter 1

Severus Snape woke with a thunderous crash from somewhere in the house. His nose was hooked and lacking winsomeness even at the age of eleven. His skin was sallow and pallid as though he barely ever saw daylight, and strands of black hair hung lank and lifeless around his long visage. The boy was skinny, seemingly underfed, and his shoulders were hunched as though he was constantly protecting himself against the attacks of hungry ravens.

The only thing in the boy's appearance that could be considered remotely attractive was his dark, glittering eyes, but even this feature held something repulsive as the boy stared towards the barred window of his bedroom. Only a narrow glimpse of sunlight could be seen from between the wooden bars.  
The bedroom was as unattractive as its occupant. The four walls that surrounded it was gray and plain except for the barricaded window and a closed door. A narrow ray of gold escaped through the keyhole and lit up a slim path across the dusty floor.

Severus Snape sighed softly, his pale fingers tracing a non-existent pattern upon the white sheet of his bed. The sound of something breaking echoed through the small house and shattered the silence. This breaking noise was closely followed by a woman yelling and a man overpowering her voice with roars of anger.  
"Look what you did! That belonged to my grandmother!" the woman screeched, her usually low and hoarse voice reaching new pitches of madness as she stomped her foot against the floor in evident rage.

His parents were arguing already and it was barely noon. "I did? I did? You stupid girl, you pathetic excuse for a woman, you witch! It was you who made it fall!" a man yelled back, and before the woman could retaliate, the sound of another vase crashing against the floor rang through the upstairs corridor. "Look! It was you! You and your foul temper! You and your uncontrollable magic! You are exactly like that boy downstairs; just as uncontrol-"

He was cut off from finishing the sentence as something much grander than the breaking of an artistic work of china shook through the house. The house quaked, sending tremors like thunder through the floor above and successfully shutting off the argument upstairs.

Severus had gotten to his feet and thrown an overlarge, ugly coat around his hunched shoulders, and his messenger bag with his scrap book hidden inside. A moment's unrestrained anger flashed within the darkness of his eyes, making him look slightly demonic as he slammed the door and left the house.

His soul shivered in the warm early summer sunlight in the street outside of his home, and the voices of Tobias and Eileen Snape picked up once more as fierce and loud as though the house had not just shook as though under an earthquake.

The street, just like the boy and his bedroom, looked dismal. It was impossible to tell the grayish houses apart as they together made up the street known as Spinner's End. Admittedly, the street did look a little more cheery in the warm colors of summer meshed with late spring opposed to the rest of the year. And anywhere was more cheery than at home, Severus reminded himself.

The voices of his parents became less audible with every step Severus took. He walked past rows of cracked streetlights which had undoubtedly fallen victims to the gang of local troublemakers searching for something to do in the uneventful, little town. The town was small and gray; a typical industrial town with identical houses lined up in a web of streets together making up the homes of the one hundred workers belonging in the growing industry in England.

After a couple of minute's walking, Severus reached his destination, his sanctuary, and an incomplete peace grazed his pallid features as he sank down by the green banks of the river, his dark eyes looking down upon the silvery water before him. The river was small by normal standards, yet it provided a nice contrast to the town it passed by. The water that had not yet been rendered toxic by the growing waste of industry was poured into the river daily, and the green grass that surrounded it was like a breath of vigor in a world of grey.

It was not a seldom sight; the dark-haired, spindly boy sitting alone by the small river just behind the local playground. He often came out there, and he was always alone. Few knew more about him than his surname and the street in which he lived.

"Snape," the leader of the troublemakers would whisper to his mates as they walked past, their new trainers making fresh marks upon the muddy path behind the riverbank as they walked home from some destruction or another. "Lives down old Spinner's End. Mum and Dad told me to stay away from him. Might be disturbed. His parents hit him. But look at those clothes!"

Severus' pale fingers curled around a white daisy that grew beside him and provided a snow-white contrast to the fresh, green grass. He crushed the small flower in his palm, savoring the feeling of having destroyed something pure and innocent, something unreal.

There was no such thing as perfection.

It was only illusion made to trick one, made to lure one into misery. And Severus Snape would never fall into the same trap that his parents had done when they had him. He would never be confounded, never lose grip of what was real and dash into a situation with no escape.

Severus threw the crushed blossom into the water, watching it being carried down the silver river before swearing darkly as he noticed the sticky, green fluid that was now smeared across his pale palm. He rubbed it off on his ugly clothes, the green making a stain upon his too small jeans, but Severus couldn't care less about the state of his clothes.

His black eyes were fixed upon the dense growth of trees on the opposite side of the river. His expression was one of the utmost intrigue, and his thin lips parted slightly in surprise. The rubbing movement of his hand died away, and before he even knew it himself, Severus had gotten to his feet and started walking towards the stone bridge that provided a crossing over the river.

Severus had never paid the little forest much attention until then. But now, as he looked into the greenness of the trees, he looked downright aroused. His black eyes shone, his thoughts momentarily straying from his troubled family as he defiantly caught a glimpse of something moving in the woods, something that made his speed pick up further as he dashed past the first couple of trees.

He could feel the silence wrapping around him like a warm blanket, and turning once he saw the world of gray being left behind for the evergreen forest before him. A trail of his own footprints marked the muddy path along with another trail. The fresh imprints of bare feet also tainted by the mud were slightly smaller than Severus's own.

Severus turned his hooked nose back towards the trees again and continued, walking further into the forest, chasing his prey with excitement that grew for every step he took.

A sound made him flinch, and he quickly sought retreat behind a particularly large tree. His breathing was as shallow as he could manage to make it, and his fingers were shaking in enthusiasm as they rested against the rough bark of the trunk he squinted around.

There, between the trees, he caught sight of something vividly red that contrasted severely against the green. It took him a moment more to realize that what he laid his eyes upon was a girl seemingly about the same age as Severus himself.

Her dark red hair fluttered behind her like a rich, bride's veil as she walked through her kingdom of softwood. Her skin was flawless, her soft cheeks rosy, and the features of her young face looked as though they had been carved by angels. She was wearing a T-shirt which hung loosely around her slender torso, a pink skirt that did not reach her dirty knees, and a battered denim bag thrown over her shoulder.

It was only a girl, a mere girl, and Severus felt a certain disappointment erupting inside him

If Severus could just wrench his eyes off her, he would turn away and make his way back to the gray village across the river, but his eyes would not obey his mind. He had never seen anything so beautiful, never laid his eyes upon a girl of this radiating purity; never seen a being of this incomparable perfection. The fact that the young girl had that effect on him made him feel only more resentful towards her, yet he did not turn away.

Severus barely dared to breathe as he trailed behind the girl, going deeper and deeper into the forest. There was something exhilarating about following her in the shadows, something addicting that made his heart beat faster. She knew nothing about the boy always one step behind her, and the fact that she didn't made a seldom grin spread across Severus's thin lips. The smile changed his appearance immensely, making him seem almost like another person as his gaze darted towards the girl once more.

But it couldn't hurt just to look, could it?

The girl finally came to a halt in the middle of a bright forest clearing. Severus stopped behind a tree, his eyes still upon her as he watched her looking towards the dense growth of tree on his left. She was staring at something he could not see; her attention fixed upon something that moved within the trees. The sun broke through the canopies above and made her red hair glitter.

An animal emerged stumbling from the bushes on long, thin legs. It's glittering, black eyes were upon the girl, and it blinked twice. The long, black eyelashes kissed the soft skin beneath its eyes as the eyelids closed once more.

A flash of brown in the corner of his eyes drew Severus's attention away from the girl and towards the young doe, now standing reluctantly in the bushes. It took Severus a moment to realize that this had been the very animal in which they had walked so far to see.

Then the girl smiled, lowering herself to the grassy forest floor until she was sitting on her knees and was no taller than the doe itself. She carefully opened her small, denim bag she had carried over her shoulder, and she pulled out a ripe apple, the color of blood covering the sweet flesh of the fruit in her right hand.

Then she spread the slender fingers of her left hand and lay it, palm down, upon the dewy grass. The entire clearing seemed to brighten at her touch, and Severus had to clasp a hand across his mouth to keep himself from gasping as he witnessed a miracle of magic unfurl itself before his eyes.

Dozens of sprouts broke through the grass and stretched upwards towards the sunlight. A white and pink bud adorned each of the springs as they practically shot into the air, and barely a minute passed from the moment they had first become visible between the blades of glass to the second that each one of the sprouts sprang out in the form of pink stargazer lilies.

The girl's green eyes glittered with energy and life as she looked up from the meadow of lilies and watched the doe finally staggering towards her. It looked unsteady upon its long legs, and cautiously it lowered its head to the apple she held up.

Severus watched from the shadows, his eyes shining in awe. He had never seen magic this grand, this pure and controlled. The magic he usually witnessed was outbursts of either his own or his mother's magic, conjured as a shield towards his father's unfair anger. The two uses of magical skills could hardly have contrasted more. This girl was innocent and powerful.

The witch stood up again, her pale hand still upon the beautiful head of the doe as she stroked it affectionately over the soft neck. Both of them looked equally innocent in the sunlight in the meadow of lilies, and Severus felt like a beast prowling in the darkness of the forest as he watched them with intrigue etched on every sallow feature of his face.

"LILY!"

The scream split the sweet serenity, making the doe freeze in its spot it's black, heavily lashed eyes widened as it looked towards the voice, and a split second later it had bounded into the darkness of the woods from whence it came.

The girl was left in the meadow of lilies, the half-eaten apple resting upon her open palm as the girlish voice rang through the treetops again.

"LILY!"

The owner of the voice was coming closer. The bushes and the crisp leaves that littered the forest floor rattled as the unknown child made her way towards where Severus and the girl were standing, the latter still believing she was alone.

She sighed, her eyes still lingering upon the spot where the doe had vanished as the apple fell limply from her hand. She turned, readying herself to face the rapidly approaching girl, but she froze halfway.

She had spotted a glimpse of Severus as he looked at her from behind the tree trunk, and her intense eyes were now etched upon the tree from which she had just seen a skinny boy poke his head around.

Severus's heart was racing; this was not how it was meant to be.

His palms were sweaty, and his knees were buckling. He could sense the girl drawing closer to his hiding place and he caught a whiff of the heavenly scent of fresh flowers, felt a touch of warmth nearly grazing his elbow that had failed to hide behind the tree trunk. The fingertips that had touched his cold skin sent a shiver through his being, rattling his soul inside his spindly body, and he knew that he had to get away before she saw the rest of him.

"LILY!"

The yelling girl reached the clearing, stumbling into the meadow of lilies as Severus seized his chance.

"Lily, come on, we're leaving!" she said shrilly. Lily obeyed her sister at once, daring a glance at Snape as she left. But before she got to the end of the break of trees she turned once more to look at him, not of hate or disgust, but of like and curiosity, she waved and pointed to her wrist and to the ground "_tomorrow" _she mouthed.

Snape nodded once and turned to walk back to his house with a new slight spring in his step, schoolwork forgotten for the afternoon. As he reached his house he heard a door slam inside and wasyanked out of his happy bubble at once. Snape walked around his house and sat by the old weeping willow and pulled out his sketchbook from the middle of his new schoolbooks and started to sketch Lily and lilies. Minded that Snape isn't much of an artist he had a gift of pictorial memory. Snape sketched long after the sun had gone down. Packed away his forbidden sketchbook between his schoolbooks and creped back into his house.

"Where have you been all day!" his mother demanded as he shut the door quietly.

"Outside, reading up on my school work." He replied calmly.

His mother looked at him through slanted eyes as if to detect a lie. "Just make sure you know what you are reading is the correct way to do something… I learned very early that especially potions is always skirting on the best way to get results. If you wish after you read those you make look at mine, I added side notes on _everything _that was wrong or skirted." She looked at him again, though this time with her eyes glazed over, looking very odd but Severus didn't think anything of it, "And you and I are going shopping in the Muggle stores tomorrow. My old mentor is teaching still and I will not be considered a bad mother for neglecting her son."

"But…." Snape said remembering his meeting with Lily in the morning.

"NO! Will go before your father wakes up… I do not wish to argue about this with him." She lowered her voice slightly "Have you finished your last sketch book I bought you? Ok then we will get you one for each month you are gone. You seem to go through those things so quickly. Well your dinner is on the countertop I kept the stove on low so it wouldn't get too cold. And your aunt sent your birthday present today, its on your bed."

"Before I eat can I go back to where I was? I left my sketchbook there." Snape insisted. His mother nodded as she got up to retire for the evening.

Snape ran full speed to the clearing close to an old house just on the other side if a forgotten playground hidden within the denseness of the forest and wrote a very quick note to Lily.

_"Dear Lily,_

My mum is taking me shopping for school things in the morning, I am sorry that I wont be here when you get here. Please forgive me. I'll be back the next day and the next day and every day after that waiting for you. And please try to avoid bringing your sister. I'll see you soon… hopefully

yours.

Severus Snape"  


Severus folded the letter and sat it against the swing set and found a nicely sized rock to hold it down if the wind blew at all. He walked slowly back to his house, feeling sad that Lily would find the letter instead of himself tomorrow. He ate his diner silently, rinsed off his plate and went to his room. After his shower he pulled out the lose floorboard at the foot of his bed and reveled a large stash of sketches and pencils and erasers. He pulled everything out and put it in his school trunk. After he showered and brushed his teeth he laid in bed thinking of Hogwarts and of Lily. He drifted peacefully to sleep with a smile his face had never known before.

"Sev! Wake up! Quickly. We don't have much time so don't waste It." Snape was woken up by his mothers' hurried whisper. "Get dressed. We have to leave before he gets up or we'll never get out of here."

Snape dressed as quickly and as quietly as he could, after he grabbed his Muggle money he had saved he ran downstairs and out the door to the car that was rarely driven. Twenty minutes later they were just outside the town.

"Severus, where would you like to go first? Clothes, shoes, or the art supplies store?" his mother asked him.

Snape knew better shoes were the most expensive things on the list his mother gave him and if he looked at the soles of his shoes he could almost see his whole foot. "Shoes, art, then clothes." After a half hour of searching for shoes he found a nice plain cheep pair in the back of the store just his size. His mother agreed and pulled out an old looking leather wallet and paid for the shoes in cash. Severus had expected to pay for all of his own stuff the way he had always done. He felt a slow smile creep onto his face, and quickly hid it.

The art supplies store had always been his favorite. His mother picked up a dozen or so sketchbooks, the really expensive ones, and placed them in the shopping cart.  
Severus counted in his head the price of the books and noted that they were more than he had in his pocket and his face fell slightly but he didn't dwell on it too much because his mother pulled out the wallet again and counted the money, it took about 5 minutes for her to count the small bills seeing as she rarely used them but it was still about twenty times the amount he had in his pocket. His mother then got him about a hundred new pencils and erasers. She also found a few blending stumps and a sanding block.

At the counter his mother rounded on him and asked "Sev do you have a quarter? I don't want to break a big bill." Snape looked at his change and handed his mother a twenty-five cents piece.

The last place Severus expected them to go for clothes was the name brand store. His mother picked out about three-dozen shirts and two-dozen pairs of jeans for him to try on. Snape avoided arguing because it was nice to actually have his mother caring for him. About an hour and a hundred dollars later they headed back home.

Or so Severus thought. They went to the managers building at the front of Spinners End. "Stay here." His mother said as she got out and walked up to the building. Severus waited for about ten minutes before his mother came out.

"You and I are going to be staying in that small house just behind the old playground, if that is alright with you. At least until the manager can get Tobias out. I refuse to stay with that horrid man"

Snape's heart flew. But he knew is dad would not go willingly nor quietly. They drove over to the little house and unpacked all his new things, and also his school trunk, and went inside. At first Snape thought he was looking at his old room but then he realized that it was just the 'living room' it wasn't too small or too large. He saw about four or five doors leading somewhere.

"You go and explore. I am going to go back into town to get food for the next week or two. After that I am going to park the car around back so Tobias doesn't see it." His mother said as she went back out the door and leaving him alone to explore.

Then he heard a sob from the back of his house. He went to the closest window to go look and saw a Lily outside reading his letter far off in the dense trees. Severus realized that she was sobbing because he wasn't there. Though it was well past when they said they would meet he felt a small bubble of joy in his heart.

"LILY!" he yelled.

Lily jumped as if she had been shot at the quickly whipped the tears from her eyes and got up to run to the window.

"I thought you lived at Spinners End… or have you moved out from your parent's house on your own?" Lily asked with a smile through her tearful eyes.

"Even better. My mum is kicking my dad out. And he won't go quietly. That's why we are staying here for a week or so. She's out getting food." He said with a smile, but added, "Why are you crying? What happened?"

Lily blushed. "Petunia, Tuney, said that you wouldn't be here when I got here. I told her that I wanted to talk to you myself without her. Luckily mom grounded her for yelling at earlier today. I got here and I thought she was right till I say your note and I realized she was only half right." She paused for a second as if reading his reaction, "I want to talk to you about me being a …witch but I don't know if your mum will let me in the house alone with you or if you can come outside with me…"

Snape's smile grew wider, "Hang on, and let me write mum a note and I'll be right out. Don't leave." He added hastily. He ran back into the house and changed into a new outfit but put his cloak back over it so it looked like he had been wearing it all along and wrote his mom telling her that he was outside sketching. He also grabbed his school bag and sketchbook. When he walked around to his new back yard he saw a small picnic table made of stone, where Lily was sitting; she was so short that her feet were hanging about an inch or two from the ground and she could swing her feet back and forth in anticipation. She looked up and smiled at him and he felt his heart skip a beat and blood rush to his face.

"I brought my school books so you wouldn't think I was crazy. I also brought you my letter to show you proof." He smiled at her, "when's you eleventh birthday anyway? That's when you should get your letter." He added quickly knowing how personal of a question it was to ask.

She looked at him kindly with those beautiful emerald green eyes and said, "Tomorrow actually. Will I really get my letter tomorrow?!" she asked excitedly and eagerly.

"You might even get a teacher to come clarify it to your parents and sister… do you have any brothers I should know about?" he asked warily.

"No silly, it's just me and Tuney. And I hope I get it tomorrow. I really do. So tell me everything!" she added with enthusiasm.

Severus smiled. Even though he would love to hear more about her life he said, "Your wish is my command. Our school is called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There are four houses of the school to which a student belongs to there Slytherin, Gryffindor Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. I know I'll be in Slytherin, that's where all of my mum's side has been for centuries. Your basic studies are Potions, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, History of Magic, Astronomy, Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. But there are loads more for upper class members such as Divination, Ancient Ruins, Arithmancy and quite a few others. We receive and send mail by owl post, which means instead of a postman we have owls or other birds that deliver our mail. Every student may bring an owl, a cat, or a toad, but the most common is an owl because they are dead useful. You can also choose to either stay at school over the holidays or you can go home. A Muggle is a non-magic person but a squib is a person born or magic parents but can not do magic. We get wands, schoolbooks and a lot of really cool things, such a broomstick. But only after our second year. Our sport is called Quidditch, it's like every other sport but its played on broomsticks. Gringotts is the wizard's bank; it's underground in London. It is guarded by everything from spells and enchantments to goblins and dragons. You will get a book on magical creatures, which has every single one known to a wizard." He stopped there to pick up his book to show her, also pulling out each of them and showing her his letter. "Its all pretty much right there. But after you get your wand you aren't allowed to do magic out side of school, except in life or death situations, which are really rare. And depending on what you do and whom you do it in front of you could be sent to Azkaban, the wizards' prison. But I doubt you should have to worry about it."

Lily looked up at him with amazement in her eyes. She smiled and said, "Tuney thought you were crazy and dangerous. But you are very sweet and kind. And you are not at all crazy." She added with a smile.

Snape turned red at that. "Thank you for saying I'm not crazy."

"Do you think it would be alright if I came back here tomorrow?" Lily asked.

Snape stuttered, "But… Lily… it's your birthday. What if a teacher or your letter arrives while you are out?"

"You have just explained it all too me. It's my parents that the teacher will be explaining things too." Then Lily added in a small voice that made Snape almost melt away. "Unless you don't want me to come over…"

"No! Lily. I just want you to get your letter. You can come over any time you want. I don't care what time it is. I enjoy being around you. Don't ever say I don't want you with me. I like you. I really do." Snape was now a deep red when he heard his mothers' car return. "I'll ask mom if it's okay for you to stay inside instead of out unless you want to stay out here in the cold and about tomorrow too. And maybe I'll walk you home." He added with a smile as he got up to go to his mother. She spotted him as soon as he walked in the door.

"I thought you were out side sketching."

"I was then my friend was at the play ground, is it all right if she comes in for a while before I walk her home?" Snape asked his mother.

"Is she a Muggle?"

"Not really… She can do magic and her birthday is tomorrow. But she is Muggle-born. Not that that should make any difference, right?"

"No, go get her. I'll make you some snacks and two drinks." She said kindly as she sat the groceries on the table.

Snape barely heard his mothers' words as he ran back out the door to Lily that was still looking at his books.

"Mark that page. You're coming inside!" Snape declared as he stared putting books back in his bag. "Mum is also making snacks and something else I didn't hear as I was coming back out."

Snape made the decision to be daring and grabbed her hand to guide her to the door. She squeezed his hand gently and they came to the door. Snape let go of her hand reluctantly.

"Mum, this is Lily. One of my best friends." Snape said making Lily blush slightly.

"Hello dear, you may call me Eileen. There are snacks on the kitchen table and drinks; I don't know what you like to drink, dear so I just gave you butterbeer, like Sev." She smiled kindly, "Sev, I'm going to go to the house to grab a few things I missed this morning, is there anything you want me to get?" Severus shook his head as he showed Lily to the table and pulled out her chair. Once they heard the door shut Lily spoke, "the manner people talk about your mum would seem to make her a mean woman but she is very pleasant."

Snape snorted, "Normally she is very harsh. This kind woman met me at the kitchen table last night, I am still wondering what she did with my real mother." The words were almost cruel but he said them with a smile. "So do you have any questions about magic?"

Lily shook her head as she sipped on her butterbeer.

"Then tell me about yourself. Anything you're willing to share with me." He added with slight color in his cheeks.

Lily smiled and drew a breath, "Well I was born on June 30, 1960. I like art, although I am not good at it, reading, playing, talking, and the beach, which I have only been once. I like school and my friends but I cannot wait to go to Hogwarts. I like every kind of animal but my favorite is either a doe or a snake. I love the rain and snow, summers normally nice as long as there is a breeze I'm fine..." After a long while Snape finally tore his eyes away from hers and looked out the window to see the sun setting. And waited for her to draw a breath before interrupting.

"Lily, I think I should walk you home before the sun goes down and your family starts to worry."

"Ok. What time should I be over here in the morning? Noon ok with you?"

"What about your birthday plans?" Snape asked.

"I don't really have any this year. My parents are working from home right now so they can wait for my letter or the teacher. I want to be here with you…" she added with a smile.

"Ok then. Come on, before it gets dark." Snape said as he pulled out his sketch book and tore out a piece and wrote a note to his mum that he was walking Lily home and that he would be home soon. He also wrote the time down so she wouldn't worry. And Snape walked her home holding her hand as they went talking the entire way, and still when they walked up to a two-story cottage and Lily kissed him gently on the cheek.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Sev." She said as she went in her house. Snape walked back to the house with a hand on his cheek and a smile on his face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Freaks.**

Snape woke with a start as he rolled over and felt a dip on the end of his bed. "Lily!" he said as he pulled up the sheet over his bare chest, seeing as he only slept in pajama pants since he was five. "What are you doing here so early?"

"It's almost one silly. I didn't want to wake you. Your mum let me in as she was going out; she said to tell you to behave. Whatever that meant." Lily blushed slightly as she realized the look in his eyes. "I'll step out if you want to get dressed." She said as she got up.

"Lily" Snape said in a very low voice, "I am dressed. If we aren't going outside I don't need a shirt, unless it offends you." Snape felt daring as he said it.

"Oh." Was all he got. But it was said in such a tiny voice it made him beam. Lily looked out his window at the sun shining through the luscious trees as he got out of the bed, almost as if she was afraid he really wasn't decent. He walked over to her and said, "I chose this room because you can see the playground from here, that way I could see you coming." He added with a smirk on his face.

She still wouldn't look at him so he walked over to his dresser and pulled out the t-shirt that went with his pants.

"Better now?" he asked no quite sure to feel thrilled or offended that she wouldn't look at him.

"I didn't mean it that was it's just..." she trailed off and Snape had a fleeting thought, does she have a boyfriend?, " I've never been around a guy who wasn't wearing a shirt and only pajama pants. I just don't want you to get the wrong idea about me." Lily was talking in a small voice that she used when she was embarrassed.

"No. I shouldn't have said what I did. I'm sorry Lily. Forgive me for being rude?" he asked quietly.

Lily looked up at him and smiled, "I'm sorry I'm being silly. You don't have to wear a shirt just for me."

Snape shook his head but smiled all the same, "It's on now. You'll just have to deal with me in clothes." Then realizing what he said he blushed and apologized again laughing.

"Come on, let's go in to the living room." Snape said as he led her back into the sitting room. "I'll teach you wizard's chess and gobblestones." He pulled out the game chest his mum had brought from the house. Lily caught on fast to wizard's chess. She even beat him in the second round when Severus' mum came home.

"You beat him? You'd be the first to have beaten him since my uncle died two years ago. Well done Lily."

Lily looked at the bags in her hands and asked, "do you need some help with those?"

"Severus, you've got a very magnificent friend here. And no dear its just these. Thank you though." She said as she sat them on the counter. "Tobias is being very stubborn. I had to show the judge the deed to show that it was I that bought the house, not him. Although I think I am getting attached to this little house…" she trailed away in to her room.

Snape finished teaching Lily gobblestones and she had last five times but beat him the last Snape got up and went to his room to get dressed to walk her home and as he took off his shirt he looked out the window, "Lily come here."

"Lily, come here. Look I think it's your sister." Lily shot up and ran to the window to see her sister marching around the playground to get to the house.

"Did you tell her that we were here instead of Spinners End?" but Severus did not get an answer seeing as Lily ran to the door to open it to her sister.

When Severus got back to the living room Petunia said, "I am sorry for how I acted toward you the other day at the playground. I was in shock."

As Petunia gave Severus a watery smile an owl swooped into the room through the unlit fireplace. Severus picked it off of the owl and gave it a small coin and he looked at the yellowish envelope with emerald writing letter, which read:

To Miss Lily Evans  
"Well Lily you go your letter finally." Severus said as he handed the letter over to Lily. She opened it with shaky hands and she read aloud:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL  
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDY  
HEADMASTER: Albus Dumbledore  
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock  
Supreme Mugwump, international confed. Of Wizards)

Dear Miss Evans,  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of necessary books and equipment.  
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.  
Yours sincerely,  
Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

"Wow. I can't believe it. I really got it!" Lily said with a tear in her eye. "Sev, I need to go home I'll be back to see you as soon as I possibly can… you understand don't you? "

Snape nodded his head but he wasn't looking at Lily. He was looking at the hatred, disgust, and bitterness showing on Petunias face.

Concerned for Lily he offered, "Would you like me to walk with you, Lily?"

Lily shook her head, "we will be fine stay here. But can I have your phone number so if I can't make it tomorrow I can call you at least?" Severus went to the kitchen phone and got the number off of the dial and wrote it down for her on a piece of sketch paper.

"Hang on. I almost forgot." He ran back to his room and returned with a thin package.

"Open it when you're alone. Call me after you do tonight if you can please. I'll wait for your phone call."

Lily touched his arm and said, "thank you. You didn't have to get me anything."

"I wanted to. And if you don't like it you can just chuck it in the fire." Severus said with color returning to his cheeks.

"I know that I will like it." And with a goodbye to Eileen and kiss on Severus' cheek she was out into the cooling evening with her sister.

Even from across the playground he could hear Petunias spiteful words, "I forbid you to go and I forbid you to see that… that… that freak ever again!"

"Tuney don't say that. He is really nice and he is NOT a freak! And if you are calling him one," she said brandishing the letter in her sisters face. "Then you're calling me one. And it's not nice!"

Severus could hear them arguing for a while, voices carrying into the wind. It has been what he was afraid of. Lily shouldn't want to stay home but he was afraid with her sister as her influence she might just do that. He waited for nearly two hours before he heard the phone ring. He jumped up and grabbed the cordless in the other room running back to the living room back in front of the TV.

"Hello?" he said almost afraid it wasn't her.

A hesitant voice answered him, "Sev?"

A feeling of dread washed over him, "Lily what happened? Are you ok? What's going on?"

A weak laugh answered him.

"Nothing. Tuney tried to talk mum and dad into not letting me come over to your house anymore. But they said that I needed to learn as much as I could form you before attending Hogwarts. Then she said that I shouldn't be allowed to go to the freak school with you. They said that I was accepted and that other than the school supplies it was free to go and where she had to pay to attend Smeltings. She got really mad and mum so kindly reminded her that she was grounded and that she shouldn't be outside at all and that she needed to return to her room for the holiday. A teacher, Dumbledore I think, was here earlier today; he explained everything to mum and dad. And I told her I'd talk to you and Eileen about getting supplies. Mum also said she will drive me over in the morning. I can't wait to show you what I got for my birthday Sev! And speaking of which I need to open your gift." Severus heard rustling over the phone and held his breath has he heard a tiny intake of breath.

"OHMIGOSH. Sev! I love it! Where did you get it? Wait there's writing at the bottom…" silence greeted him as she tried to make out his tiny writing. "Sev? Did you draw this for me?"

Almost afraid to answer he replied, "Yes, do you not like it?"

"Sev you are such a marvelous guy! I love it! I'm framing it as soon as I can!" Sev let out the breath he had been holding. He had pleased her, which pleased him. And what an amazing feeling that was.

"I got a question for you Lily… what school do you go to?"

"Stonewall middle right now. Then in September I'm going to Hogwarts. Yay me." She giggled. He melted.

"Why I have I never seen you before? We probably don't even have the same teachers or classes… or even lunch times. Lily are you there?"

Severus wondered if she had hung up on him but he got a small voice over the phone, "Sev, my friends make fun of you. They were the ones who threw the snowballs at you as you walked home the last day of school. I'll put an end to it if I can. No one should be treated that way. Especially not you, you're far too nice and caring. I really like you and I won't let my friends' or my sisters' views of you change that. But until then you are all mine for the keeping, right? Here I am claiming you as mine and you might have a girl…." She trailed off scared to finish her sentence.

"No Lily, I don't have a girlfriend but I'd like for you to be mine but I will leave that up to you." Sev answered her hoping, praying she want to be his, that he was worthy enough to be hers.

"We shall see my sneaky little devil. We shall see. But until then you are my bestest of best friends, do you hear me, you come first. Don't let anyone tell you other wise."

Severus' heart grew so light that he had to shake his head to wake back up. They talked for hours about nothing and everything. He learned that she loved to make snow angels and that science was her favorite class. (Beep) And many other things till the cordless phone beeped at him to tell him it was dying.

"Lily, my phone is dying and I'm exhausted. I shall see you in the morning. I moved the TV into my room so you can also just turn that on to what ever you want. (Beep) You can wake me up or let me sleep. I don't mind either way. I'll set an extra pillow on the bed and an extra blanket on the nightstand if you want a blanket. Sweet dreams my Lily. (Beep)

"Alright. Good night Sev and sweet dreams to you too. I'll see you in the morning." Lily said with a yawn. (Beep)

"Stupid phone." Severus said as it died.


End file.
